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Going for an all girls lunch and it being a sunny day, this seemed like a great place to catch up with each other since it has an outdoor deck overlooking the water, giving us a great place to enjoy the weather, be relaxed and enjoy some good conversation.
I would have to agree with one of the other reviewers in regards to how things work to order food, drinks and receive both.
You can either order at the front of the place and then find a place to sit or find a place to sit and then go up to the front of the place and order. Either way, it feels as if you are at a fast food restaurant ordering food.
The only difference is, when your food is ready, they bring it out to you and if you want another something to drink you can then order it from the waiter or waitress (there were 2 that delivered our food). Although when I asked to order another beer from the waiter he seemed annoyed, but the waitress who we ordered more drinks from was more than polite and completely open to getting us more.
Hmmm, since I had been to this place many moons ago, I know this is how it has always worked, so I guess it's worked out for them for all this time, so why change?? Although it can be quite confusing if this is the first time going to the place and you're not with someone that has been here before and is in the know.
Place had a decent amount of customers, but they were all mostly out on the deck. That is one thing this place definitely has going for them on a nice day.
They are known for their pizza and since I have had it before, I can definitely state that it's worth going for the pizza if in the area.
They also serve appetizers, salads, sandwiches, burgers, entrees (seafood and steak), etc... With a good selection of beers (yes they do have Manny's, Mac & Jack's, etc), wines and liquor.
This day, we all had salads. Which were all meals in themselves with the amount of salad you get.
-Flat Iron Steak salad was decent, although a little skimpy on the steak, the rest of ingredients were properly allotted.
-Chicken Cobb looked good and seemed to have a decent amount of all ingredients.
-Grilled Chicken or Prawn Spinach Salad (she had chicken) was a little disconcerting. As with the Flat Iron Steak salad, it had little chicken and seemed to have almost none, if any of the other ingredients stated on the menu. HMMMM????
Cost for the salads was a little pricey, beer seemed to be in line and looking at the price for everything else, it kind of varied.
This is a 21 plus place only, so don't plan to bring the kids here.
I'm agreed with others that the prices on the menu merit wait staff ordering, as opposed to having to go up to the counter to order. I also had to go back to the counter to get a refill. I'm not sure what the wait staff actually do here.
The pizza is 12 inches (about medium size), and starts at $16 with $1 for each additional topping. Their specialty pizzas are a whopping $24 a piece. The crust is nice and thick, floury but not buttery, and baked about 5 minutes too long; my green peppers were black.
We went at night for the water view, but couldn't see out of the windows through their strong reflection.
And I can't say I appreciate having staff trying to clear out our plates before we were ready, and bussing/wiping down our table while we were still sitting there.
Tacoma institution, add up the view + decent food + decent service + reasonable prices + wide variety beers and food items and you get 3 to 4 stars.
Known for their pizza, it's not to everybody's liking. Somewhat of a greek style, lots of slightly browned cheese. I don't get the logic of ordering and paying ahead of time at the counter, if you order additional drinks, dessert or coffee you still have to pay your server.
My main problem with Katie Downs is its lack of understanding of identity. It has lost itself somewhere between a full service sit down restaurant and the pub on the corner (or in this case, the waterfront). Walking into the place it seems like a normal restaurant, either a host(ess) greeting you and showing you a seat or a sign (like at normal restaurants) telling you to seat yourself. This gives you the feeling or idea that someone will be stopping by to greet you and hand you a menu. However, this is where things are lost, this doesn't happen. You've got to walk up to the "bar" basically cash register in the front to get your own menu and order while you are up there. Very confusing! I actually watched a couple walk out of the restaurant because they didn't understand the concept (I don't blame them).
Once you figure out the convoluted ordering system, the service isn't much better. No smiles or help, just someone there to take your order. In addition, they short poured my beer!
The food was pretty good, but expensive for what you get. Nothing to write home about, but if they could fix their service and figure out their identity I would probably go back.
Oh, Katie Downs, you have so much potential with your excellent location and cool looking restaur...excuse me... bar. Figure things out and you would have a 5 star. For now, I will give you 1. Sorry, but the 2 times I have stopped by I have been less than impressed with my entire experience.
Outstanding pizza and seafood, but the service leaves something to be desired. It is nice to have an option that is 21 and up, where you can have a nice dinner and drinks and watch a sporting event. We often go to Katie Downs for dinner -- with the understanding that the service will be terrible. It is always slow, and it takes asking multiple times to get a refill on drinks or something as simple as extra salad dressing.
The last time I was there, they forgot my food (but the rest of my 5-person party got theirs), and tonight, they brought me the wrong pizza (I had said pepperoni, not pineapple). Fortunately, they remade my pizza to go -- and it was worth the wait. Their pizza is by far the best in the area -- try the build-your-own with white sauce.
As for their seafood offerings, the halibut and chips (or a much healthier, good-sized salad) is a bit pricy at $18.99 for 3 pieces, but it's consistently delicious. The beer-battered prawns (with fries or salad) are also great, as is the crab and artichoke dip. The seafood trio is good, but you only get one crab cake, which is kind of sad. All in all, a great menu, though.
This place is a pain in the ass. The system for ordering beers/booze is ridiculous and the mixed drinks (after waiting a long time) seems to be mediocre. Methinks not.
As for the food, eh, I mean it's bar food w/ a seafood twist. Add in Fish and Chips (which are appalling and bland) and that's basically the menu. I give KD 2 stars simply because they have a nice outdoor patio but sadly, WA is super cold at night even in the summer so it would behove the establishment to add space heaters. I'm just saying.
I love Katie Downs. One of the main reasons.....no kids. Now, I have two, but knowing it's adults only makes a night out to dinner all that more special!
The view is fabulous and in the summer sitting on the deck is awesome! I have always had good food here. From burgers, to fish and chips, and one of my favorite pizzas in Tacoma it's all good. My favorite meal is the Great White My Pie with a salad. I know this may sound nasty, but try dipping your great white pizza in some of their honey mustard dressing....delish!
Now to the drinks. They have a decent variety of nice cold draft beer. I tend to stay away from their wine due to the fact I have been served old (open for a while) wine. The mixed drinks are decent too.
Good times can be had with very large groups of friends. The seating is plentiful and you can even sit up in the tower which can be fun. Just make sure not to leave wasted....you may fall down the stairwell! Then again, please do...and I hope I am there to see it and laugh;-)
The food here is ok, but for the prices I'd rather they have table service instead of having to go up to a counter to place orders. They could also upgrade their decor. I heard they have good pizzas...but those are expensive also.
The main reason to go is there pizza, which is a handrolled crust pizza with delicious sauce and toppings. Although the prices are pretty steep (about $25 a pizza) the pizza is worth it. Mahi Mahi tacos are also good, beer is expensive but reasonable.
This place is one of those "order at the counter and go sit down" type of place, which makes it pretty casual and easy, so you're not having to be bugged by the wait staff too much. I read some reviews here before going there and the reviews said the pizza was good.
I order a Mac & Jacks Amber (gotta have one) and a plate of onion rings as a starter. The onion rings were fried just right and came with blue cheese dip. However, the onion rings were not homemade which was a bit disappointing. Based on the reviews at this site, I ordered a personal size pizza with BBQ sauce (choose from red, white, and this) with sausage and green peppers. It also came with a salad or fries (I choose salad with honey mustard dressing).
The pizza....wasn't very good. About 1/3 of the pizza was crust, which was deep dish but overly thick. The content of the pizza was really gooey and I could not recognize the sausage or the green pepper because visually. The taste....really greasy and the BBQ sauce was over powering. The salad.....seemed to be out of a bag and the dressing wasn't as good as some of the others. I was disappointed.
Now, if you want to have a good time with plenty of good beer and a good view (it's next to the water), come here and you won't be bothered too much by the staff. However, if you're looking to have good food....this isn't the best place. One of my friends ordered the chop chop salad and it was no where near Palomino's. It was soggy and unimpressive. I gave it 3 stars because of its view and beer....
What can I say, I really like Katie Downs.
I do think their beers are a bit pricey but when you consider that they come in a extremely large glass I guess that more than makes up for the cost.
They also serve wine if you like that kind of thing (I don't but to each his own).
I have had their burger and I must admit that it is a damn tasty menu item but, I usually tend to get their Fish & Chips as they do it as best as you can possibly do it outside of London.
There is plenty of seating and on a nice day/night you can eat outside and listen to the surf.
When I first moved here from NYC every said "you gotta go to Katie Downs! Its the best!". I went there once, not going there again.
The restaurants ambiance and decor feels like a Red Robin made love to a J.Crew catalog and somewhere in between they decided to make people order at the countertop ala Subway. When you mix in the size of the place, the lines, alcohol and less than courteous clients it creates a sense of confusion.
The setting of the restaurant is on the waterfront and so the crowd there is what you expect. Mid to upper class clients who drive up in SUVs and talk about the latest episode of American Idol. As their alcohol content increases, so does their obnoxous behavior and rudeness. As a person of color I felt... well really uncomfortable.
Now lastly lets go to the food, I thought out of all this the pizza has to be good, I was wrong. The pizza was loaded with toppings to make up for an average crust which did not fold well (one of my standards when comparing to NYC pizzas). I was disappointed.
So I believe the popularity and draw of this place of its great views of the waterfront, its casual setting and staff that seems somewhat interested in their customers. Overall though I would not return here again.
$26 for 2 burgers with fries and only water for drinks? feh. Mix in a meager helping of fries and small sandwiches and I'm resoundingly unimpressed... Top it all off with us having to stand in line and order at the counter? Yeah, not a winning combination in my book.
I was really not impressed, but maybe I was expecting something a bit nicer for my pre-(taking my Ma to see)Loverboy dinner. I wasn't expecting anything super fancy, but I'm not used to paying $30+ (before pre-paid 30% holiday tip) for a soggy half cooked burger with digusting relish and decent reuben with a pathetic salad and the saltiest 1.5 pounds of fries known to man when I have to go to a counter and order it myself and pay in advance then respond to my name being yelled from next to the bar. Also, the employees were all milling about gossiping with the cashier - probably not as annoying if I weren't seated RIGHT NEXT to the cashier. Also, getting out of our table when there were 8 people in line around us was no easy task.
If I try it again, I'll do so in the summer when I might be able to enjoy the view and I'm not sitting next to three tables full of Sears employees having their office party.
I'm sorry...I just had to call attention to this negative comment by a previous reviewer:
"maybe I was expecting something a bit nicer for my pre-Loverboy dinner"
Ha. HaHaHa. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA............
~wiping away tears~ "nicer"..."pre-Loverboy"...HAHAHAHA stop it, yer killin' me...
Seriously, stick to the excellent pizza and you'll be OK.
I will never go back to this place!
1. No wait staff. You order cafeteria style. I can not believe the prices they charge for not even having wait staff.
2. Food was so terrible. We had the steamer clams. Only water and butter they cook them in. And they were the smallest clams ever. The clam chowder tasted like potato soup. I had a few tastes and didnt even bother after that. $10 for soup and green salad that was nothing more than iceberg lettuce with diced tomatos. Very unimpressive...The fish and chips were very heavily breaded. The best thing about them was the tartar sauce.
3. When the dishes were cleared I made mention that the chowder was not to my liking. She employee, cashier couldnt give a rip. Even though thier menu states they have an unconditional gaurantee on thier food.
Our bill came to a total of $45.00 that could have been well spend somewhere else.
The only thing that tasted right was my beer.
I give this place 2 stars because of the beautiful view. I actually only went in here once with a friend and haven't been back since.
From the get-go you have to snag a seat, then while someone holds your table you have to stand in a line (for some reason this screams cafeteria to me?) and order from a semi-friendly staff member who takes your name--heaven help you if your name is Joe-- and order. You are expected to pay for your meal AND tip the staff before receiving any food OR service.
In my one experience, my friend had to stand in line for almost 20 minutes...then we waited for about 45 for a plate of nachos...which never came...so "friend" stood in line once again to ask about our one plate of nachos, and when it was deemed missing they made us a new plate of nachos---which we scarfed down quite quickly, having shared a pitcher of beer on empty stomachs.
On yet another note, I have a friend in the F&B industry who worked here for a short while and quit very quickly for the same reasons I have described above. He just didn't feel right about giving such mediocre service.
I will say the nachos were delicious and according to other reviews so is the pizza...but if poor service drives you crazy like it drives me crazy (I also work in F&B), save your soul by getting pizza and beer at your local supermarket.
What the world needs is more non-stuffy waterfront restaurants. Katie Downs understands this. They serve up burgers, fried seafood, salads and pizzas alongside pitchers of beer and glasses of cheap house wine all in a beautiful waterfront setting. The deck itself is huge and extends out over the water, and the dining room is composed mostly of large windows that allow you to feel like you are outside without having to deal with all the hassles. They also have a turret! Yep, a turret that you can reserve for your friends to hang out in - I can't tell if pirate jokes are appropriate here but I'm sure I'd turn this into my own personal crows nest and try to fashion an eye patch out of a coaster and a bit of string.
Thank you Yelpers for steering me in this direction when I was looking for a bite to eat in Tacoma.
The pizza is famous, but I've never tried it. Instead, it's always the same thing -- three piece fish&chips with halibut (vs. snapper) and extra tartare sauce. We always take my 82 year old mom there - she collects every bit of leftover and savors it for the next few days (gotta love the elderly ;-) ).
Service and food isn't consistent - sometimes it's fantastic. Sometimes it's seriously lacking. But Katie Downs is my Tacoma regular.
I really liked the location and what it must be like in the summer. Too bad there's not a small dock attached, for moorage. Our food was not good last night. Chowder was mealey and unimpressive all around. Halibut Fish n' Chips had overcooked halibut and processed fries that weren't great. Small green salad was strangely unappetizing but as I was dying for some greens I ate it. I want to try it again and feel that there must be some reason that it's been given so many high ratings.
I echo the reviews who question the service here. There is a major "we are doing you a favor" feel around the place. The food is actually pretty good but the service takes away from the experience. The dude that usually runs the door is pert near a jerk.
Mmmm - can you say yummy pizza? Can you say great view? Can you say laid back atmosphere? All of the above are true here and you won't break the bank coming here. It's good service, friendly staff, good food (whatever you get) and summer makes for an especially nice bit of dining outdoors along the water. This place is usually bustling, but never too full for another customer. Tacoma's own Katie's is a gem. Don't take my word for it - try out their pizza and pull up a chair, have a great local beer and watch the game. You won't be disappointed.
The food here was decent, I had one of their salads, but next time I think I will try the pizza. I didn't really like the whole walk up to the bar to order thing and the service wasn't too impressive either. But on the upside the view was beautiful and the casual atmosphere made it a pretty comfortable place to hang out.
Love the fact that it only serves 21 and over. Every item of food I've ordered has been great! Love the big beers! Hate the fact that you have to try and find yourself a table. A group of 8 of us went here for dinner, over 1/4 of the tables were reserved... No one acknowledged us or tried to help us get a table.... We ended up eating at Harbor Lights, which was very good, but needs to be updated.
I love the personal pan pizza that I build myself. They have a white pizza option that is delicious! The view is great. It is a tavern, so no children allowed.
The best happy hour in Tacoma hands down, there is no second place even if you do have to order and pay ahead of time.
This is a nice bar and grill with great pizza. The other food is good too. It's right on the waterfront, and you get a great view. The food is a couple dollars more than it would be on land, but the view is worth it.
The pizza here is amazing! Sure you're going to pay a few bucks more for it but you get a view that's tough to beat and service with a smile for certain. This is a great location to drive or sail to in Commencement Bay. Go here and be pleasantly surprised!
Fish, chips, beer, view. Not nessesarily in that order. Katie Downs is a great place for a pint on a soggy day.
Crab Cakes! Great sauce! Great view...good service. I can sit there for hours just relaxing, eating, drinking, and visiting....ahhhhhh. Not on a rainy day out on the deck though. There is one gal at the counter that isn't always the friendliest, but other than that, it's a good bang for the buck. Nice place to bring out of town guests!!!
best view from all seats...loved it!
Tacoma, WA
Category: American (New)
Tacoma, WA
Category: American (Traditional)
Tacoma, WA
Category: Restaurants
Tacoma, WA
Category: Restaurants
Tacoma, WA
Category: Restaurants
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